


Dry Anger

by yellowhalcyon



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Family, Family Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hand Jobs, M/M, Stormpilot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-26 22:58:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10796514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yellowhalcyon/pseuds/yellowhalcyon
Summary: Poe takes Finn along for a surprise visit to meet his dad. But when he gets there, Kes reveals he needs to say a few things to his son. Things get heated, then even more so, and Finn takes care of Poe in the aftermath.





	Dry Anger

**Author's Note:**

> Turns out I'm actually finishing fics now, who would have thought it? :3 So I just wanted some Poe and Kes angst and then it turned into this.

To Finn’s surprise, the Dameron home resides in the middle of nowhere. An large, expanding complex of mostly ground level buildings surrounded by a shallow ray-shielded blue fence. Of which, Poe takes three tries to get the entry code right. It’s like a farm but not because there are no cattle or crops. Just a dog, a few droids, and a garden.

They get there around early evening, gliding up into the front door in Poe’s rented hovercraft. The whole place is as quiet and tense as the ride over – because Finn can clearly sense there is something Poe hasn’t told him yet. On the patch of grass opposite the house sits the biggest tree Finn has ever seen. And when he looks over at it, he swears he can feel it _humming_ somehow. It doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t try to explain it to Poe, who’s now at the back of the hovercraft, unpacking.

No one answers the door when Poe rings the bell. He sighs and runs a hand through his hair like he expected this. But the moment he notices Finn watching, Poe disappears under a brave face and coughs out some excuse along the lines of his father probably being busy on the other side of the complex and can’t hear them.

Finn acts like he believes him, even though he doesn’t need the Force to sense there’s something Poe isn’t telling him.

Poe tries one last time and gets answered by a protocol droid that doesn’t recognise his face but does his name. He asks them to go find his father while Finn and he finish unloading the bags inside.

With nothing left to do but wait, he takes a courteous look around. Finn spots frames on the wall by the door and upon walking up to them sees they’re full of pictures printed on pieces of flimsi. Finn’s never seen such a thing like this before in his life. No one used print on flimsi anymore, even in their makeshift, put-together Resistance base, everything would be recorded on twinkling holograms.

Poe comes up behind him. ‘You know the funny thing is dad wanted to be more efficient by having the family holos printed off, but getting these cost more than the holos would have.’

Finn assumes the kid with dark curly hair is a young Poe. He’s in basically every picture, grinning way too much for his small frame. A smile Poe hasn’t grown out of, evidently. The only picture without him is the last one in the corner containing a laughing couple in each other’s arms sat on a grassy bank. Finn assumes from it’s strange framing and angle this picture was taken by a young Poe himself.

‘So this is what it takes to make you return home?’ a strong voice says from behind, ‘when you have someone to show off.’

Finn turns with Poe to see a man, around the age Han was, standing in the doorway next to the stairs, a cloth in his mucky hands. His skin is a tone darker than Poe’s and he definitely didn’t give Poe his hair. In fact a lot about him seems to have missed Poe’s gene banks, for a long second Finn thinks maybe this isn’t his father. And then he realises Poe shares his strong jaw line and his nose. They have the _exact same_ nose. Finn is sure if he were shown both separately from their bodies and devoid of colour, he wouldn’t be able to tell whose nose is whose. This is Kes Dameron.

Poe deflates slightly at the sight of this man. ‘Dad?’ he says, voice gentle and cautious. It’s clear he just became aware of how much he’s missed him.

However, Kes looks first to Finn instead. ‘I apologise - _Finn is it?_ – I don’t mean to be rude. You are the reason Poe has decided to pay me a visit, after all,’ sighing, like the next part will be hard for him, ‘but would you please excuse us for a moment I need to have a word with my son?’

‘Dad?’ Poe says, tired. ‘Do we have to do this now? I was kinda hoping I could settle in first. Maybe get something to eat.’ After the stubborn silence, he tries, ‘I just got here.’

‘All the more reason. I don’t know when I’ll see you again.’

Poe jumps as if someone just zapped him. ‘Dad..!’

‘Poe, please.’ Kes gestures to the room behind him.

Poe says nothing more. He turns to Finn, ‘sorry about this, do you mind unpacking alone?’

Nodding, ‘sure,’ Finn says.

‘Hopefully this won’t be long,’ Poe throws him one more glance before disappearing into the other room with his father.

¬

Poe hasn’t told Finn everything about his family life yet. But he certainly hears more of it right now than he ever has before. Poe’s bedroom appears to be the only room upstairs beside a very small bathroom and, since their conversation is coming up muffled through the floor boards, Finn concludes he must be right above them. They don’t keep their voices raised all the time but it doesn’t matter when all Finn needs to do is leave the door open to hear every word.

At first he tries to piece together the story: Kes is upset that Poe kept his Resistance membership a secret and that the only way he found about it was when General Leia informed him of Poe’s torture at the hand of Kylo Ren. She knew Poe would never tell him in his unpredictable one-way messages so she took it upon herself to tell Kes directly. He also seems to be concerned that he could lose Poe doing the same dangerous endeavours he did for the Rebellion thirty years previous.

Poe defends his actions in a voice Finn has rarely heard from him, apart from the one time Poe told him the story of how his mother died. Kes brings her up a lot as reasoning why Poe shouldn’t be doing what he’s doing, why he needs to think this through more clearly. And then Poe states that if he did that a lot of people wouldn’t be here. He needed to act fast to save the galaxy with his piloting skills. And so the cycle begins again.

Eventually a small black and green astromech wheels in, bumping into his feet, and suddenly BB-8 makes perfect sense. Finn responds with polite wave to their surprised beeping, exhausted by a fight he’s not even in. In no time at all, he’s brought in all the bags needed, therefore with a sigh he gets up and pushes the door’s closed button.

With a single slide of metal, Poe and Kes’ voices are drowned out. Enough of that.

He sits with the astromech and wishes he could at least ask for their name. A thought strikes him and he gets them to project their name in a hologram: _RB-865_.

Finn asks RB-865 to pinpoint the signal Rey gave him for contacting the Millennium Falcon and then sits back and waits for Rey to answer the call. It’s luckily going to take ages so he delves out a fiction holo-record to read. But after awhile he can barely concentrate enough to read one line of it.

His mind keeps dipping back towards Kes’ side of the argument. He’s never really thought about it. The actions he took back in the First Order were his duty; he had to do them regardless of the risk or his opinion. Even when he disobeyed Captain Phasma’s orders and Kylo Ren’s on Jakku, making the first definite choice in his entire life, he knew what he was doing. He knew what little time he had left to get away with it and escape alive with Poe.

But now he lives in the world of freewill. He figures it must be something to keep in mind. He remembered when he first met General Leia and how she made sure to take moment to tell him just how brave he’d been to renounce the First Order and choose to save another man’s life. To be honest he didn’t feel brave at the time, caught up in the anxiety of Rey’s kidnapping and relief of Poe’s survival. But as the events died down and he got a few moments to relax on a lumpy, rigid seat in the Millennium Falcon cockpit, breathing with the hum of the ship, he listened and embraced the terrifying thunderstorm inside of himself and it felt... okay. He realised then, that bravery could be something to help hold him up and make him stronger, instead of a force to stump him down and scare him into submission.

However, after his fight with Kylo Ren and consequential long recovery in the medcenter from his injuries, things have started to plummet. Finn is yet to go on any solo missions. He just accompanies Poe on a few scout missions, or disappears on several deliver runs with Jessika and Karé, or endlessly stays up on nights with Snap to hone his shooting abilities in the low light, although that one doesn’t really count.

He can walk and run as well as any soldier on the D’Qar base. But something still doesn’t seem to add up. They are holding him back, he fears. Could that be because they think he isn’t brave enough anymore? Or because they care too much to be able to let him go again? The main problem here is, the First Order never cared at all, about either, so he can’t tell the difference.

Instead he decides to think about Poe in this situation and how this subject applies to him. He has got several people who care about him: from birth, his father; from his time in the New Republic academy, his friends like Jessika, Karé, Iolo, Snap; from his time in the Resistance, his other fellow rebels like Leia, Ackbar and maybe Luke on some level. The Force connects every living thing, after all. And then there’s strangers like Rey, and even Finn himself at one point, who see a living being deserving of sympathy and empathy, and more importantly not deserving of death.

Now Finn cares about Poe more than he’s ever cared about anyone and through feeling love for another person, he has discovered how he can love himself as well. It is a trial-and-error sort of way, rather than a romantic one. The thought of Poe going on a dangerous mission scares him but if it’s what Poe thought was right and if Finn agreed with him, then to be perfectly frank, it should be Poe’s choice to do what he wants with his life and Finn would just have to aspect that.

By the Resistance, Finn has been taught his life belongs to no one but himself. The same applies to Poe. To anyone.

So caught up in his thoughts is he that he misses the signature beep as the hologram signals align and only until Rey’s image emerges and she begins to speak, does he notice her. Finally here.

‘F-f-Finn?’ the hologram glitches. Her form is portrayed in translucent blue, flicking for a few short moments as the radiation between their aerials passes. The first thing he always notices is her hair, she has it in a different style now. Not the three buns anymore but the top half held tied back and the bottom half loose. Her clothes have changed as well. Gone are the long sheets of grey fabric, now she wears a jacket with detached sleeves that Leia made for her. If anything, the only thing that remains from before is the bandages wrapped around her arms, with new trousers, shirt, and belt. This belt has a holster for the gun Han gave her back on Takodana.

‘Rey!’ his mouth says of its own accord.

‘Finn?! Are you there? Hold on, I can’t see you yet.’ She bends down to fiddle with something unseen and then abruptly her face lights up. ‘Hey, there you are.’

Finn smiles along with her and almost immediately the tension built from Poe and Kes fight seeps away from his bones. It’s only now that he comprehends just how highly strung he’s become from hearing them argue over and over and over again.

‘Hello, Rey,’ he says.

‘Hi, Finn,’ she says.

Unintentionally they spend the next few moments just smiling at each other, happy to be able to see each other, happy to be able to talk.

Then Finn remembers he is yet to see her in person since he held her arms on the snowy landscape of Starkiller Base. And her expression flickers like she realises the same.

‘How have you been?’ she says. ‘Anything else about your back I need to know.’

‘Nope,’ the word bounces from his lips. ‘That bacta tank really did all the work, except getting rid of the... scar.’ It stretches down the full length of his back, discoloured against the rest of his dark skin and smooth to the touch like metal, but thin and slimy like glue that hasn’t dried yet. It means no matter how far he runs, the First Order will always have their mark on him.

‘Have I ever told you, when I was on my third cycle on Jakku, I got into my first group fight?’ Rey says, bringing Finn’s mind back to the present.

‘No..?’ he says in alarm.

‘Yeah, it was the stupid thing,’ she says and her eyes move elsewhere as she remembers. ‘They attacked me over some ship part that barely got me half a portion as it is. But they saw a reason to attack me any way.’

The argument downstairs suddenly gets louder and Finn shifts in his seat. He tries to focus on Rey and what she is saying.

‘In the end, I beat the group. But not without sustaining a nasty gash on my forearm.’ She takes off her jacket sleeve and winds up her bandages to show it to him.

‘Yeah, that is pretty nasty,’ Finn concurs.

‘I gave it twenty days but it wasn’t healing. Not like my normal cuts,’ she says and begins to put her scar away. ‘It really bothered me because of all the water I’d wasted on keeping it clean and none of it had worked. After all this work and I still had it.’

He starts to see what she’s trying to tell him. He did all this work to get away from the First Order and to fight back against their power and yet a part of them still remains.

‘A cycle later and I still had it. I used to scratch the scar thinking perhaps that would get rid of it.’ He sees her unconsciously reaching for her arm now. ‘It wasn’t until I saw the same group fight another lone scavenger and beat that one, did I realise.’

He smiles.

‘Scars don’t form on the dead, Finn,’ Rey says. ‘A scar shows that you survived something. And you’re still here, ready to survive it some more.’ She looks him in the eye and grins.

Finn doesn’t know how to thank the universe for bringing them together. ‘Yeah, thanks, Rey,’ he says and grins too.

‘Hey, I thought you said you were going to Poe’s family home soon,’ she says. ‘When is that happening?’

Finn sighs. ‘It’s happening now.’

‘Really?’ Rey says and somehow she picks up on the dark patch in the room. ‘Well, where is Poe now? He does know I’d like to talk to him too.’

‘Oh he knows,’ Finn says and pausing means he can hear the argument downstairs. ‘He’s, uh, arguing with his dad.’

‘Oh,’ Rey’s expression drops. ‘About what?’

‘His father doesn’t think that,’ Finn says slowly – with how easily he can hear them, he fears they can hear him too, ‘Poe should risk his life in the Resistance.’

‘They’ve been arguing for how long?’ Rey says.

‘Ummm. Hey, RB, what’s the time?’ the droid displays the time above Rey’s hologram figure. He raises an eyebrow, ‘...almost two hours.’

‘Wow.’

‘Yeah.’ He doesn’t want to admit it, but it is beginning to sour his time here.

Consequently he stops this pause in the conversation from settling for long. ‘Rey, do you ever think about the risks you’ve taken and, if you should have take them, then why?’

Rey pulls a face, thinking, ‘not at the time. At the time they needed to be taken, I think.’

‘I think that too,’ he says.

‘Such as when I chose to get free from Kylo’s prison cell, I knew there was every risk he could return at any point and I’m sure if he caught me trying to escape he would have put me through worse than he already had,’ he sees her visibly shiver. ‘But I couldn’t just sit around and wait for rescue. I didn’t know then you were coming for me,’ _he hadn’t given her reason to_ , ‘I didn’t want to face his torture anymore. So I took this risk and tried out some old Jedi trick. It was one the other scavengers used to joke about in the queue for Unkar’s food portions.’

‘Did you think it was going to work?’

‘Definitely not,’ Rey’s features scrunch up in amusement. ‘But I knew I would never know if I didn’t at least try. I had to believe in myself or else I would never succeed.’

Finn had similar thoughts when he took a risk and rescued Poe from his fate on that Star Destroyer. He remembers mumbling to himself to _keep calm, just keep calm_ ; if he rushed he could have made a big mistake and then everything would have fallen apart. ‘So would you say it was brave to take that risk or stupid?’

Rey shrugs with her shoulders and expression. ‘Luke says it often takes a bit of both. Enough bravery to want to do it, but enough to stupidity as well to not think of how it could go wrong.’

‘Talking of which,’ Finn says, ‘how is your training going?’

‘It’s going well,’ Rey says. ‘Luke is so thoughtful, you know, and kind but...’ she chews the final word around in her mouth, ‘sad.’

Finn suddenly becomes aware he’s yet to see a hologram of Luke. He tries to imagine what the legendary Jedi Master looks like. He may soon find out in person, since Leia keeps vaguely mentioning that he should go join Rey across the galaxy to learn what he can’t learn on D’Qar.

A distance wookiee roar comes from somewhere off screen and Rey throws a smile over her shoulder. ‘Hi, Chewie!’ Finn calls. Another much louder rough comes through and they both chuckle.

The commotion downstairs picks up abruptly and it stops Finn’s mirth dead. ‘I don’t think it’s stupid to fight back against the First Order,’ he says to get things clear. ‘Do you?’

‘They started this fight, Finn,’ Rey nods. ‘As far as I’m aware they forced their anger and death on us and, now I’m involved, I don’t intend to take it lightly—’

 _Crash_!

—His head flings straight towards the door and ‘whoa,’ Finn says. He turns back to Rey, ‘I’m gonna have to call you back, Rey. Sounds like something just got broken downstairs. I’m gonna go check but I’ll call back as soon as I can. Bye, Rey.’

‘Okay,’ Rey says, ‘bye, Finn,’ and the connection cuts off.

Finn practically runs down stairs and towards the room Poe and Kes would be inside. He approaches the closed door.

‘I’ve been afraid, Poe,’ Kes is saying from the other side, ‘for a long time that it would be all for nothing. Does that mean nothing to you?’ he hears Poe try to speak but Kes carries on, undeterred. ‘Because I didn’t try hard enough not only as a soldier, but as a parent, my own son could die at the hands of the same enemy I failed to prevent?’

‘They’re not the same..!’ Poe sounds wrecked. That’s when Finn pushes the _open_ button on the door and rushes inside.

Poe stands on the other side of the room to his father, caught between the kitchen worktop bench and the sink. Tears already stain his eyes red and more are threatening to spill over. Immediately Finn heads towards him. It turns out the smashing had been a pot shattering in Poe’s grasp, the broken shards of which have cut his skin. Coming closer and Finn realises Poe is trying with all his might to keep his voice level. ‘The First Order and The Empire are completely different, dad. I’m not following mum, I promise.’ He holds his bleeding hands in the air in front of him, too emotional to deal with the pain or start to clean himself up.

‘It doesn’t matter how different they are,’ Kes says. Thankfully he doesn’t protest to Finn’s interrupt to their personal conversation. ‘What I did would still be all for nothing—’

‘What was I, what I supposed to do—?’ Poe pleads.

‘—That I would find out my son, the only family I have left in fact, died because of my failure.’

‘Dad, w-what was I supposed to do?’ Poe only processes Finn’s presence when he is stood right in front of him and takes a hold of his bleeding hands. Upon doing so, his face finally crumbles. Poe collapses in Finn’s arms. Shoving his face against Finn’s chest, he starts to wail as the sobs shake through him.

Finn looks over and see Kes has frozen at the effect he’s now had on his son. He hit a nerve he didn’t mean to hit.

Poe clings to Finn’s arms and Finn hugs him back as best he can, all he can do until Poe stops crying. He doesn’t care about the blood on his clothes. The sound slices open his heart and he feels himself start to tear up just from witnessing Poe in this state.

Another glance over and Kes is gone. Finn thinks that would be for the best; Poe just needs a break for now.

¬

When the sobs reach to delicate whimpering, Poe pulls away, leaving a nice distinct tear trail down Finn’s shirt. Finn takes the moment to assess his hands. The cuts aren’t deep; a few fine, thin lines on his palms and thankfully no embedded pieces of pottery.

Finn leaves the mess on the floor and, for now, directs Poe’s hands under a gentle stream of water. He flinches at the cold liquid on his skin but doesn’t move his hands away completely. Finn cleans off the dry blood and the blood still coming. Clumping up a nearby tea-cloth, he instructs Poe to push his hands down around it, putting pressure on the wound like he learnt while in the medcenter, as he searches the cupboards for a first aid kit. He kind of hopes his intent rummaging about would prompt Poe to reveal where the kit actually is. But he remains quiet by the sink and Finn lets him be.

In fact Poe stays silent until after Finn finds the kit, carefully wraps up his hands, and is guiding him back up stairs, where he mumbles a tiny, ‘I’m sorry.’

Finn stops in his tracks and looks to Poe who is staring dead at the floor. ‘It’s okay,’ Finn says plainly. ‘You have nothing to be sorry over.’

‘Still,’ Poe shifts against him, ‘I didn’t want you to see me like that.’ He glances up and embarrassment shines in his eyes. ‘But, either way, thank you, Finn.’

‘You’re welcome,’ Finn says and leans in for a small, sweet kiss.

They settle together upstairs. Poe clicks the door locked because, even though he doubts his father will disturb them for the remainder of the day, he wants to be absolutely sure. Finn doesn’t question this. They strip each other and then dress each other in their own sleep wear in a clumsy pull of cloth and repositioning of limbs. Once finished, Poe kisses Finn for a long time, just enjoying his company and rubbing sweet circles onto his back.

They establish themselves on the bed and lie face-to-face. It’s a little small for their adult bodies to balance on easily but neither mind having to rest their legs inter locked together. Finn brings a hand up and rests it against Poe’s face. He brushes his cheek with his fingers and Poe smiles, eyes closed, golden and warm. The close proximity and skin on skin contact leads exactly where it should do and soon something hard starts poking Finn’s thigh. He massages his other hand on Poe’s stomach, gradually moving it lower and lower before receiving a gentle kiss as permission.

Finn darts his hand inside Poe’s pants and wraps it around Poe’s cock. Poe lets a breathy exhale by his face and Finn kisses him while he strokes his fist up and down. Getting a bit of the pre-cum for better slide, he increases his speed and revels in the way Poe twitches beside him, hands blindly gripping at the sheets and Finn’s shirt, at anything. He doesn’t hold for long, however, because of the cuts and winces when he forgets and grips too hard. With small little pecks on Poe’s neck and face, Finn brings him closer and closer to the edge.

Finally Poe groans in that way which means he almost there and buries his face in Finn’s shoulder. Finn keeps up the pace gently as Poe’s orgasm shudders through him and stops once Poe is batting his hand away. He lets Poe lie against him and supports him while he catches his breath to make he doesn’t fall off this damn small bed.

After minute or so, Poe pops his head up, looking distressed, ‘oh, shit, sorry, I forgot about you.’

‘It’s fine,’ Finn says, already feeling his sleepiness overreaching on his arousal; he doesn’t say but he figures it’s probably to do with the fact Poe and his father were arguing for such a long time. He yawns and hugs Poe’s non-compliant frame towards him.

Poe stays still for a few seconds longer and then finally relaxes. ‘You sure?’ he says.

‘Yeah, I’m sure,’ Finn manages to slip out before the sleep consumes his mind then. He’s positive Poe says something else but in the morning he doesn’t remember what it could be.

¬

The next day they decide to spend their time here doing exactly what they came here to do, which is, for the first time in a long time, relax on the surrounding outside areas and eat nice food.

Poe wakes Finn up in the early morning to show him how the cob webs look like jewels in the autumn dew, and they hold hands while walking through the century old Dameron garden of fruits and vegetables. Finn admits to himself that he’d love to try each and every one of them, but, at some point, Poe says he doesn’t completely know for sure when they will ripen, and Finn notes how he doesn’t add on the end that his father most likely does.

In the mid afternoon, they get lost in the wild outdoors, wondering through the many forests and wooded paths scattered about outside the blue ray-shielded fencing. They’re so far apart, they have to get there to each place by Poe’s hovercraft.

Finn takes in every sight and every smell and the amount of times he almost bumps into a tree or trips because he was busy staring at the sky or the ground or the various flowers on offer becomes uncountable. Poe doesn’t judge him each time it happens, just smiles like he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the entire galaxy than right here with him.

Towards the evening Poe suggests they head home and they arrive back to an empty house. Finn heads off briefly and says hi to RB-865. He thinks of asking them to try and call Rey again when Poe suddenly calls him to help make dinner.

Finn believes that some day he will be a great cook. He’s mastered shooting, and driving a variety of simple ground vehicles, but is yet to do this with cooking. So mostly he remains stuck in the corner, chopping vegetables and meat while Poe watches the main pot of food. Once dinner is ready, Poe takes him to their main lounging room and they cuddle up on the large white sofa. RB-865 comes rolling in and Poe asks them to display the latest galactic pod races, so they can snuggle together and feed each other small bites whilst cheering on Poe’s favourite team.

The race lasts long after all the food is gone and then Poe pulls Finn from their rather comfortable spot, grabs a few snacks from the kitchen, and insists they go outside for a moment.

Finn doesn’t resist, he sees no reason to – inside or out, either way he’ll be spending his time with Poe – and calmly follows an almost excited Poe all the way up out to the furthest away tree on the property. It’s huge, possibly second largest to what Finn’s now decided to call the Humming Tree back in the driveway, and so its roots have easily created a seat perfect for the two of them. It’s only after they are settled against each other that it finally dawns on Finn why Poe has brought him out here.

The sunset is _utterly breathtaking_.

Finn never really cared for time awareness back in the First Order, wasn’t allowed to. He spent most of his time indoors under special lights that made sure they didn’t suffer from the lack of vitamins provided by the stars of the galaxy. After leaving, he found out these lights were practically on every ship in the New Republic and didn’t know if that made him feel worse or better.

But here with Poe in his arms and a belly full of food, Finn can’t think of any way he could be happier. And it’s because he knows there are ways he could make himself more content that turn this moment just even more pleasing.

Oranges mixing with yellows and a small hint of silver colour the sky, all leading down to the bright star, emitting in the centre like a beacon of hope for the whole solar system. Finn grins and leans down for a kiss.

Then the atmosphere is shattered slightly by the arrival of Kes Dameron’s hover craft in the distance since that causes Poe to tense in front of him. Low and behold, it isn’t long until the gentle sound of footsteps draws closer and closer to them.

Kes steps into view. Towering over them, he says, ‘son, can I have a word?’

Poe refuses to meet his eyes and declares to the ground and Finn’s hands around his waist, ‘whatever you have to say to me, dad, you can say in front of Finn.’

Kes sighs. His statue and body language suddenly remind Finn of Han Solo and he wonders if the two of them ever met or it’s just the demeanour of a tired soldier that he’s adopted, like every other soldier before him. ‘Okay,’ Kes says and slowly eases himself down onto a root next to them. He runs a hand over his face and then begins, ‘I guess I should just start with the simple fact that I’m sorry.’

Poe’s frame abruptly freezes like he didn’t expect that at all. From the impression Finn has gained so far, Kes does appear to be a quite stubborn man and a even more stubborn father, maybe Poe had been expecting a lecture rather than an apology.

Kes continues unaware of his son’s reaction as he happens to be staring out at the sun, almost like it’s secretly cheering him on for support. ‘I’m sorry for shouting at you,’ he says, sunlight on his dark skin. ‘I’m sorry for starting an argument after you only just got here. I’m sorry for questioning your duties in this galaxy and... for even questioning the great work you do in cause that I once fought in myself.’ His gaze turns to his hands and when he speaks again, Poe’s gaze finally darts to his father.

Visibly, there are tears staining Kes’ eyes red and his hands shake as he shuffles them about each other. ‘I have never in all my life intended to have that effect on you, Poe, in fact,’ he pauses a moment, presumably to prevent his voice from breaking even further, ‘...seeing you like that shocked me and immediately I realised I’d gone too far, but it was already too late.’ It gets too much for a second and, hand already on his face, Kes disappears behind his fingers to contain himself.

He continues after a minute, ‘when our argument came to an end yesterday, I did a lot of thinking.’ He coughs and swallows and Poe squeezes one of Finn’s hands. ‘I thought about why I’m so scared over seeing you serve in a Rebellion, serving under the same General I did.’ Finn knows instantly he’s referring to General Leia Organa. ‘But in the end, I learned – I forced myself to learn – that it will never be my choice what you do with your life. And if you do... lose it or get yourself hurt, then... at least it was for what _you_ believed, you know?’ Kes glances up and Finn senses his and Poe’s eyes have met. ‘And even though I would probably fall apart now, with your mum gone too, I could take comfort in that fact.’

Poe lies speechless in Finn’s hands and to be honest, Finn wants to say something himself for him because he knows Poe wouldn’t want to leave it at that. After another minute of silence, Poe still doesn’t speak.

Kes gets up to leave. ‘I’m sorry, I’ll leave you to your sunset.’

‘Dad, if you want, you can join us,’ Poe finally gets through and Finn lets go of the breath he was holding.

Kes appears hopeful. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes,’ Poe says firmly and, releasing Finn’s hand, begins to get up. ‘In fact I want you to. But first,’ and Finn watches Poe grab his father with both hands. They hug tightly. ‘I don’t want you to lose me too, dad,’ Poe says, head on his father’s shoulder. His voice sounds wrecked again but this time it doesn’t hurt to hear it, ‘and I’m gonna try my hardest to make sure that doesn’t happen.’

‘I know, son,’ Kes says, eyes closed. ‘I shouldn’t have doubted that.’

They part with a few gentle pats on the back.

Poe grips his father’s shoulder and smiles. ‘Your concern means the world to me, you know that?’

‘I do now,’ Kes says, smiling too.

Poe rejoins Finn in their spot and Kes sits back down where he was before.

‘So what are we eating?’ Kes says and that doesn’t instantly refresh the mood but it helps somewhat.

‘Dry chips, here,’ Poe says and hands the packet over to his father just before getting fully comfortable against Finn’s side once more.

Kes takes the packet and dips a hand inside. ‘Now, Finn, you have to tell me so much more about yourself,’ he says, which catches Finn completely off guard. ‘I wanna hear it all, right now, no acceptations. Poe has not given away enough information on his one way holo-messages, in my opinion.’

As subtly as possible, Finn clears his throat. ‘Oh, of course, okay, sir—’

Kes dismisses that name with the flick of a hand, now covered in dry chip dust. ‘Please, Kes will be fine.’

‘—Okay, Kes, where should I start?’ Finn says and Poe flashes him a smile.

Kes thinks for a second and then says, ‘I liked to hear more about how you first met my son?’

‘Dad, I don’t think Finn wants to—’

Kes holds up both his hands. ‘Hey, hey, it’s not every day you get to meet a hero who escaped the enemy’s side. I wanna hear the story from his point of view.’ Kes gestures one hand in Finn’s direction.

‘You sure you’re up for that?’ Poe says over his shoulder, just to check.

Finn smiles, ‘yeah, I’m sure,’ he says, finding Poe’s hand and squeezing it. Then he looks back out onto the beautiful sunset and thinks of what to say first.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what your thoughts are on the Dameron family conflict.  
> And whether or not, you believe Kes would think this stuff about the Resistance and Poe's involvement in something so dangerous, despite his own past in the Rebellion.
> 
> Come find me on [tumblr](http://yellowhalcyon.tumblr.com/)


End file.
